Charles Blow's Op-Ed in the New York Times today is something I wish everyone in our country could read. It can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/...
Our country's children have never really had any say in what we decide at the higher levels. In many cases, their parents are silenced because they are too busy, over-worked, stressed out, poor, or feel disenfranchised. Marian Wright Edelman - a hero of mine for many years - has been a voice for children in our country. Blow links to the Children's Defense Fund's website and a report entitled "The State of American Children 2011". Among the findings he quotes is this:
The number of children living in poverty has increased by four million since 2000, and the number of children who fell into poverty between 2008 and 2009 was the largest single-year increase ever recorded.
This is so tragic. How can we stand for anything in this country if we do not even allow them to have a future at all? What do we value so strongly that we are willing to turn our backs to their suffering in order to get it?
Blow ends his op-ed by writing:
We risk the creation of an engorged generational underclass born of a culture that has less income equality and fewer prospects for mobility than the previous generation.
It’s hard to see how we emerge from this downturn and its tumult a stronger nation if we allow vast swatches of our children to be lost. My fear is that we may not.
This is my first diary so I'm really not sure how to go about it. I mainly wanted to let anyone know who may not have already seen it that his op-ed is worth reading.
